I don't know the exact rule on that, but believe it is a minimum freight they are allowed to advertise.

The bigger issues for a consumer is dealing with a product sight-unseen, that has to be shipped LTL and has a high probability of freight damage. Then no dealer support for service issues. Hobie dealers are not required to service a product that is not sold by them... they are independent businesses. They would do it as a service. So, there are more obstacles to buying via the internet than just the cost of freight.

We do what we can to protect dealers from outside interference by having some "rules". This helps to keep the lights on in your local dealership. If we had no controls at all we "might" see a spike in sales... then there would be a big drop in actual dealers. We have seen that scenario play out in far to many other businesses.

This is true.

Healthy competition without restricting creativity, encouraging an entrepreneurial spirit without causing to much infighting.

The challenge is making sure your entrepreneurs have room to run within your rule set. And that your beach bums don't get mistaken for real producers and vice-versa.

what a shame. Hobie catamarans are available in only 3 stores in all of California. how many people live in California? the birthplace of Hobie. most likely the state with the most Hobie cats sold the last 40 yrs. year round sailing weather. how many miles of coastline? how many lakes? colorado river. SF bay.

and now there is a legit Hobie lifer with a desire to open a dealer and he is denied? Brilliant.

"but hey wait - check out our kayak line man, check out the fishing stuff, its rad, even lumber yards sell hobie kayaks, they are so hip, everybody is doing it"

Hobie dealers are not required to service a product that is not sold by them... they are independent businesses. They would do it as a service. So, there are more obstacles to buying via the internet than just the cost of freight.

Thats a nice policy. I spend a crapload of money on a cat and move to a new location and i need to say a pray he will do my warranty work?

Just about every other boat i have bought requires the dealer to service the boat, i just may not be priority.

Thats a nice policy. I spend a crap load of money on a cat and move to a new location and i need to say a pray he will do my warranty work?

That is not Hobie Cat policy... The Factory encourages all dealers to provide service and would not deny warranty because of a move or internet sale.

What is the bigger issue ... and the point of my comment which was related to a question about kayak purchases via the internet ... is about internet sales... where a consumer buys at a discount from a distant supplier and then thinks they can demand support from a local re-seller. That is a reality check. We do not have factory owned stores. As I said... most would do it as a service, being good business people and try to earn your business.

Regarding internet sales, this is no different than the consumer electronics (CE) business. There are grey-market guys that purchase from less-than-creditable distributers and then flip it on ebay for 2% net. Nearly every CE company I know will not honor warranty for purchases through these channels (be careful of Amazon as well). The CE companies try like crazy to police this, but its like playing whack-a-mole.

For all the reasons Matt stated, the local dealer is the way to go for proper parts & warranty. I understand and respect their decision to protect and carefully manage them.

Matt, Can you please change my forum name to Sail Revolution, and give Mikey the SC Catamarans name if he wants it.

I just stumbled across this thread, and the following is all utter unfounded speculation and opinion. Even though I still hold the Surf City forum name, I no longer own, nor am affiliated in any way with the business. I started Surf City Catamarans in 2002, which was born out of one of the oldest standing Hobie dealers, O'neill Yacht Center.

Mikey is a great guy, you'd think that Hobie would want such an energetic advocate, and I'm not sure why they denied him the dealership. What I can say is that the other somewhat active dealer and I never really got along. I worked so hard from 1998 until I sold the business 2011 to work together with him for the benefit of catamaran sailing on the West Coast, and he was never ever receptive. I don't know, but I sure can imagine his whiny phone calls to Hobie in my head about Mikey becoming a dealer.

Just to put a few rumors to rest here, and avoid the red herring arguments that have been flooding this thread.

1)Mikey has a sweet retail location right in the SC Harbor. Way better than O'neills or the original Surf City ever had.

There are many reasons that I decided to get out of the business: waning sales, too much work for very little return, difficult quality control and warranty scenarios, hardships getting parts for the European boats, etc, etc. The dealers are the front line. You'd think that Hobie would want some new enthusiasm in NorCal, especially when it's basically a turn key operation.

I am an advocate of Mikey taking up the Surf City torch! I wrote everything here without consulting him. This is my opinion! I'm sure that there's more to the story as to why he was denied the dealership...

I disagree, and would like to point out that many states require sales taxes be paid for internet purchases from another state.

dregsfan wrote:

To me it would be fairer for local dealers to have Mega internet sellers like Austin be required to charge a flat 10% shipping on Hobie kayaks, instead of $149. This would level the field with dealers having to collect sales taxes, which range from 7 to 10% and up.

I enjoyed the six years I was a dealer back at the end of the heyday in the '80s....that is, all but the loosing money part. If I won the lottery, I wouldn't mind doing it again, as long as the money lasted.